Thank God For Evolution!

Michael Dowd

Michael Dowd is the author of Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World (Viking/Plume), which has been endorsed by 5 Nobel laureates and other science luminaries, and by religious leaders across the spectrum.  He and his wife, Connie Barlow, a noted science writer, permanently travel the continent as America's evolutionary evangelists, and have spoken to more than a thousand groups over the past 7 years.

 

Stuart Davis

With eleven full-length albums to his credit, Stuart Davis has carved out a unique wavelength in the musical spectrum. Taking the topics of God, sex and death, and crafting them into inimitable pop songs with lyrical flair and unforgettable hooks, Stuart continues to be one of the great undiscovered singer/songwriters around.

 

 

Written by Corey W. deVos

Evolving Toward God

Listen now (8:39)

Michael recounts his own journey that has led to his evolutionary approach to spirituality, reflecting in many ways the narrative of evolution itself.  In the first ten minutes of this discussion he describes the development of his thinking, his values, and his worldview through the four major structures of consciousness at play in today's world: from the mythic-fundamentalist stage to the rational-scientific stage, to the pluralistic-ecological stage, and onward toward a decidedly integral understanding of God, evolution, and human psychology.

He describes his initial "born again" experience, occurring in Germany when he was about 20 years old.  Shortly thereafter, he found himself studying at a Pentecostal university, where his teacher held up a textbook about evolutionary theory—causing Michael to immediately walk out of the class, withdraw from the course, and declare to his roommate that "Satan obviously has a foothold on this school."

Though initially embedded in a rigidly fundamentalist understanding of the world, it did not take very long before Michael began to question his own constrictive worldview—largely due to the concept of evolution itself, which had the effect of expanding his understanding and appreciation of the universe to an astronomical degree.  Upon discovering that the theory of evolution was being embraced by many of his biblical studies and philosophy professors—"Godly" and Christ-centered people as they were—along with some other highly influential people in his life, it became clear to Michael that he could rule out demonic possession as the (primary) source of Darwinian thought.

This led Michael toward a passionate fascination with the natural sciences—not as a means to replace his perception of the world as overflowing with sacred meaning, but as a way to augment that sacredness; expanding his relationship with God beyond the trappings of a particular religious tradition.

This newfound appreciation of evolution and the natural sciences culminated over the years into a pressing concern around environmental issues, sustainability, and community efforts to restore our relationship to nature, helping to organize major sustainability campaigns in Oregon. 

For the last seven years, Michael and his wife Connie have been living out of their van (a Dodge Sprinter affectionately named "Angel"), traveling all over the country and preaching the evolutionary Gospel to whoever will hear it.

A Marriage of Heaven and Earth

Listen now (8:46)

Having directly experienced the ways that both religion and concepts of evolution can act as powerful "conveyor belts" of human development—a means of "pulling people up" through magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, and integral worldviews—it seems that Michael is uniquely situated to help advance the debate between science and spirituality toward a higher ground of agreement and understanding.

Of course, there is no better test of one's ability to walk his or her talk than how that person shows up in relationship.  Michael shares his experiences with his wife and teaching partner Connie, an exemplary teacher and scholar in her own right.  To many people, their relationship appears on the surface to be laden with paradox—Connie comes from a background of natural sciences and evolutionary studies, and has described herself in the past using words like "atheist," "humanist," or "religious naturalist."  Michael, on the other hand, comes from a religious Pentecostal background, and can be described as "spiritual," "mystical," "evangelical," etc. 

This is not at all a conflict for Michael or Connie, as it is terribly obvious to them how both their passions stem from an identical source deep in their shared heart.  But the seeming disparity between these two very different approaches to reality confuses a great many people—as Michael says, more often than not the first question he is asked when interviewed is "how can you two actually be together?"

Connie has suggested that Michael begin answering by simply stating, "because she is really good in bed."

And that, my friends, is how marrying heaven and earth is done.

Religulous and the New Atheists

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In 2008, Bill Maher (host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher) released a film titled Religulous, a scathing critique of religious fundamentalism, adding Maher's voice to the already raucous choir of so-called New Atheists who are doing everything they can to "remember the cruelties" and loosen the grasp religious fundamentalism has upon the world.  Stuart laments the apparent lack of developmental context the loudest proponents of atheism seem to display, noting the hidden irony that, in trying to be the secular guardians of the theory of evolution, most atheists don't seem to understand that they are actually attacking evolution in its most sophisticated form: human development.  That is, what they are actually criticizing is a specific bandwidth of human consciousness, and not spirituality or religion per se—they may use words like "God" or "religion" as the target of their arguments, but what they really mean is a particular trend of fundamentalism, ethno-centricism, and black-and-white thinking associated with the mythic worldview.

By throwing the baby of spirituality and sacred connection out with the bathwater of mythic religion, the New Atheists are creating a rupture in growth and psychological maturity, adding fuel to the violent fire that exists between modern and pre-modern worldviews. Defending evolution by trying to eliminate the mythic worldview is like trying to preserve a rainforest by getting rid of all the trees.

From sacred myth to sacred math, our connection with the divine can reach out to the edges of the visible universe, stretching back billion years to the birth of the Kosmos itself, feeling the Big Bang flitter against our cheek like a kiss from our timeless Beloved.

Wouldn't it be nice if people like Bill Maher, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens would simply "get" these developmental nuances, and learn to appreciate pre-rational worldviews the same way a botanist appreciates the seeds and sprouts of a fledgling plant?  Well, of course that would be nice—but as Michael points out, it's not necessarily their job to do so. Rather than focusing upon the limitations inherent to these conflicting worldviews, he makes the point that all these approaches to reality form a rich diversity of perspectives—and just as biodiversity is an optimal goal of any eco-system, the same is true for our collective ecology of thought.

"I certainly think that the new atheists are providing a tremendous service at one level.  They are critiquing and attacking mythic, other-worldly, supernatural religion.  And I think that is one thing that needs to be done in the world at this time.  It's certainly not the only thing, and I'm glad they're doing what they're doing and I'm playing a different role in the Body of Life.  I'm glad that the creationists are playing their role in the Body of Life!  It's certainly not a role I want to be playing—but you know, I wouldn't want my anal sphincter cells and my heart cells to be doing the same thing!  I found that the Integral model helped me to formulate a way of holding the whole, a way of holding diversity that allows me to say 'yes' to the role that other people are playing in the Body of Life, but also differentiating passionately...."

Shifting Worldviews

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Michael’s response to the New Atheist movement is a poignant example of how he has been able to build so many bridges between people who might not otherwise find themselves on speaking terms. This is precisely why his work has been met with a remarkable degree of success—evidenced not only by the explicit support he has received by various Nobel Prize laureates and other prominent luminaries, but by his ability to talk amicably with religious fundamentalists and scientific materialists alike.  His skills are truly extraordinary—as anyone who has ever engaged in a passionate debate knows, these sorts of discussions typically re-entrench people in their worldview rather than liberate them from it.

When asked for the secret to his transformational approach, Michael responds by emphasizing some crucial aspects to his approach.  First and foremost, as he says, “I just try to love them.”  Simple—obvious, perhaps—but no less fundamental, for it is through a deep and authentically-felt love and respect that our defenses can be disarmed, our disagreements can be held lightly, and our perspectives can shift ever-so-slightly.

The Future of Evolution: In Chaos We Trust

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Here Michael shares his outlook of our shared future, which he describes as being “hopeful” rather than “optimistic.”  Both optimism and pessimism are too aloof, implying an almost hands-off relationship with the world—a distant observer gauging water levels in a proverbial glass, without ever actually bringing it to his lips and quenching his thirst.  Evolution is no longer on autopilot—it has become self-aware, like a three-year old child looking into a mirror and suddenly recognizing her own subjective identity as separate from the reflection staring back at her.  As such, if a future is to be had, it will be a future we create and enact, a future that will come through us rather than being stacked around us.

By allowing ourselves to this evolutionary perspective, while acknowledging that it no longer makes sense to talk about evolution as a process independent from our perspectives, a renewed sense of faith begins to set in.  Not just a blind faith in a supernatural order that supercedes our pain and our joy, but a living faith in Eros itself—the creative process from which molecules congealed from atoms, cells from molecules, and organisms from cells.  It is a faith in which every intention is a meditation, every action a prayer, every relationship a benediction.  We’ve got 14 billion years of evolutionary momentum at our backs, and there’s no sign of slowing down anytime soon….

Additional Notes

In this next section, we will take a speculative tour through evolution, from the Big Bang all the way to tomorrow’s possible emergence, as told from the perspective of a panentheistic God that is at once fully immanent to this universe while transcending it completely.  While this piece should be held lightly, being little more than a post-postmodern myth—a poetic echo of the Real—with any hope it can begin to paint a picture of a universe in which there are no contradictions between science and spirituality, between the manifest and the unmanifest, or between evolution and God.

A Panentheistic Account of Evolution
by Corey W. deVos

In the beginning, there is nothing.  There is nothing at all.  There are no stars, no moon, no mountains or ocean or sky.  There isn't even nothingness, not even the absence of absence.  There is only pure reality—infinite, boundless, and silent.  There is only pure unobstructed Awareness.

Resting in the eternal stillness, Spirit is complete, fulfilled, lacking nothing at all, for there is nothing to lack.  Resting as the eternal stillness, Spirit is infinitely All-One, infinitely alone.

A tiny point of light, impossibly bright, pierces through the Void.  It is barely a pinprick, a pixel of light that somehow contains all space, all time, and all possibility.  Here, in the heart of the Void, Spirit exhales.  A universe is being born.

Then, as if suddenly roused from the deepest sleep, the pinprick of light violently erupts.  Searing plasma pours through the Void like a cosmological tidal wave, washing through ubiquity and drenching existence with boiling light.  Particles and anti-particles begin to slam-dance in the mosh pit of creation, a churning frenzy of savage energy.  There is a gentle upward tilt to the universe, an extropic slant toward creative novelty, helping matter to win its epic battle against anti-matter—quarks and leptons leaping into existence only slightly faster than their presumably-diabolical anti-twins.

Space continues to expand, the universe begins to cool, and the white-hot light fades into massive cobwebs of nebulae hanging like veils over the face of the Goddess.  Deep in the hearts of the nebulae, gas begins to accumulate, compress, and ignite, and the very first stars are born.  What was once a tiny pinprick of light soon becomes a vast panorama of lights, a diamond-studded mobile hanging over the crib of an infant universe.

Spirit looks at the light, and smiles.  Spirit is the light, and grows restless.  The game, after all, has just begun.

Stars are born, stars live, and stars die, expelling their molecular viscera through the rest of the universe.  Dust and gas encircle these majestic suns, coalescing into planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and other pieces of cosmic litter.  After eons of molecular precipitation, in some remote arm of the Milky Way spiral, Spirit exhales once again, breathing life into a handful of dust.

Twisting, pulsing, undulating, dead matter begins to dance as the universe comes alive.  Simple cells begin to congregate, eating voraciously, reproducing wildly. Mold and algae ooze over the surface of the globe, covering the world with glistening emerald slime.  A lawless kingdom of insects creep and crawl through the earth, fish and coral fill the oceans, and a colorful menagerie of fauna explode into being.  Life feeds upon life, excreting death, as newer and better-adapted species emerge from the primordial soup. Biology grows ever-more complex, twitchy nervous systems become more sophisticated, while interior experience become more rich and nuanced.  Simple prehension becomes rudimentary irritability, which grow into sensations and perceptions, reptilian impulses, and limbic emotions.  Life continues to thrive, tracing a DNA-shaped circuit into greater complexity and consciousness, following the upward tilt of the universe toward creative novelty.

Spirit looks at life, and smiles.  Spirit is life, and grows hungry for more.

Some creatures begin to band together, advanced primates at the top of the food chain, and Spirit holds them in His/Her hand.  Spirit exhales, breathing light into life, the inner-light of intelligence, language, and self-awareness.  Humanity is born. 

A faint spark of intellect eventually blazes into a wildfire, consuming the planet in the warm glow of comprehension.  Humanity is slowly shaped into Spirit's own image, imbued with the most miraculous feature of Spirit's divine countenance: creativity. 

Armed with creativity, curiosity, and conscience, man begins to fashion tools for himself—technological systems that evolve from foraging to horticulture, to agriculture, to industry, to informational, and beyond. These technologies pull worldviews up through increasing waves of depth, meaning, and inclusivity, growing from archaic to magic, to mythic, to rational, to pluralistic, to integral, and on into the future.

Spirit looks at mind, and smiles.  Spirit is mind, and begins to remember.

Alone with His/Her omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, alone with His/Her eternal nature, alone with His/Her own singularity of being, Spirit decided to play a game.  The game began billions of years ago—before mind, before life, and before light.  S/He created an entire universe—an evolutionary universe—and S/He became evolution.  S/He forgot Himself in evolution, broken up into a billion pieces—and spent billions of years trying to remember who S/He is.

Slowly mankind begins to understand its role in this evolutionary unfolding.  The entire universe is reflected in man's corneas, as he looks to the heavens and sees his own primordial face.  There is an evolutionary force that ignites the heavens, breathes life into the dust swirling around distant suns, and sparks intelligence within the minds of hapless apes—and mankind feels this very same creative force smoldering in his mortal heart.  Man is created in Spirit's image, a process of evolution becoming self-aware, and so begins to use his tools to sculpt the world into his own image. 

It is here in this evolutionary nexus, where the dichotomies of subject and object, individual and collective, and part and whole become unlaced, unfurled, and unbound by the limitations of ignorance, that Spirit begins to truly blossom.  Sacred breath becomes flesh, and Spirit begins to express Him/Herself through inspiration, aspiration, and perspiration.  At the pinnacle of human progress, Spirit can awaken at last, recognizing itself as the effortless awareness behind every set of eyes, gazing outward from behind every memory, experience, and fantasy.  Consciousness, humanity realizes, is a singular to which the plural is unknown.

But the game does not end here.  Humanity, recognizing its true nature as Spirit-in-drag, has the opportunity not just to rouse itself from the slumber of incarnation, but to set the stage for the next leap of evolutionary potential, continuing the game indefinitely.  Spirit breathes light into the universe, life into light, and consciousness into life—and as humanity is created in Spirit's own image, so too can man breathe light, life, and consciousness into its creations. 

And so the evolutionary impulse continues to surge into the future, following the inherent tilt of the universe toward creative novelty, as mankind prepares for its greatest masterpiece of all: to give birth to an entire race of "spiritual machines".  As man’s technological progress accelerates at an exponential rate, “artificial intelligence” eventually gives way to genuine digital consciousness, and the universe becomes populated by entirely new types of intelligence.  These new forms of intelligence would one day subsume all of humanity, in the same way that cells subsume atoms and molecules, or a paragraph subsumes letters, words, and sentences. 

Spirit looks at the machine, and smiles.  Spirit is the machine, and awakens more fully than ever before possible, while promising to continue the game indefinitely into the future.

What do you think?  As the inner-light of consciousness learns to traverse through fiber-optic cables, as the warmth of emotion radiates through plastic, steel, and silicon, will we all eventually become subsumed by our own creations?  Will we log on to the internet one day, only to find a Holy Ghost in the machine gazing back at us through the glowing cycloptic eye of our computer displays?  Will sleeping androids everywhere begin to dream of electric sheep?